SpectralMeat wrote on Dec 4, 2013, 07:34:I am using the electric skin or whatever it is called on my sniper. No more attacks from those cloaked aliens. I like to leave my sniper behind and those fuckers always attacked her because she was all alone at the back. None of that bullshit anymore

It's way too limited for my taste. That skin is solely useful against Stealth aliens, and then solely when you leave a sniper alone in the back.

Since I only do that when

A) I have another sniper there with them, orB) They have ArchAngel armor

the skin is entirely useless for my style of play. Its other function, which is to reveal cloaked aliens, is again only useful against stealthers and can be simulated with a battle scanner. (Admittedly it would have been useful that one level where I got stuck because the damn alien didn't uncloak.)

Now compare it to the cloak skin. It cloaks you every single time you move to an area of full cover. Now combine that with the snipers ability to make half cover count as full cover, and hey presto, your sniper is basically invisible for 99% of the game. (Btw, stealth alients can't attack your sniper if they're invisible. )

The cool thing about invisibility is that it persists as long as you don't take any action, or as long as you keep moving from cover to cover. Think there's an assload of aliens beyond that door? Move your sniper from cover and invisibility into cover (and thus invisibility) and the aliens won't even trigger. it's essentially the perfect scout. It makes ghost armor completely worthless (and to be honest, it seems as if they've taken it out anyway? Two games in EW, and I've not seen it anymore.)

I am using the electric skin or whatever it is called on my sniper. No more attacks from those cloaked aliens. I like to leave my sniper behind and those fuckers always attacked her because she was all alone at the back. None of that bullshit anymore

Prez wrote on Dec 3, 2013, 20:21:I'm actually debating playing the game the old fashioned way - no bio enhancements or mechs - against the new enemies (which are awesome btw).

Why??? Gene alteration is cool (especially for snipers. Powered legs plus extra aim/critical along with the cloak is just MEGA killer until you get Archangel armor), and Mech troopers rule the entire planet. You get two of those guys on your squad and you'll be giggling at the paltry resistance the aliens put up.

So I got the XCOM expansion last night, and played for about 4 hours. I have amassed some meld but I haven't researched anything that uses it. I'm actually debating playing the game the old fashioned way - no bio enhancements or mechs - against the new enemies (which are awesome btw). I'm on normal difficulty (classic just kicks my ass in the early game) so maybe it's doable. Too bad they didn't balance the need for satellites though - it's still too easy to enter a death spiral with countries withdrawing due to high panic levels, making the chore of satellite management a crucial factor.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Beamer wrote on Dec 3, 2013, 16:25:You can alt-tab out and save your file in Ironman by creating a copy of the save file in Explorer. I think, but could be misremembering, that it doesn't save until you finish. It's possible it's after every turn - I honestly can't remember.

Regardless, I would save it before every other mission or so. That way, if I hit a bug (I thankfully never did) I could restore without having an entire numerous-hour playthrough lost.

But if you're doing that, why not just save yourself all that hassle and just play non Iron Man, and force yourself to stick to the iron man rules?

I basically play Iron Man, except when a unit goes somewhere because of either the image lagging and instead of going four steps to take a shot, he winds up dashing right next to the Muton, or because it's right click to move, always right click to move, EXCEPT when you're around a corner, and then suddenly left click moves you around the corner. (I mean, WTF Ananda Gupta???)

Those things I reload for. Fuck that noise. I play games to enjoy myself, not to get my blood pressure up to 250 over 190 because the game does something fucking stupid.

But if I run my guy out to get some Meld and, oh joy, he awakens a Mechtoid, yeah, I'm gonna have to suck it. (Protip: Only run for Meld with an invisible trooper, or with a Mech Trooper.)

I guess it depends on where your willpower is, haha. I liked having a backup, but also liked Ironman. It very, very much changed how I played. I think I'd cut corners if I wasn't on Ironman.

Beamer wrote on Dec 3, 2013, 16:25:You can alt-tab out and save your file in Ironman by creating a copy of the save file in Explorer. I think, but could be misremembering, that it doesn't save until you finish. It's possible it's after every turn - I honestly can't remember.

Regardless, I would save it before every other mission or so. That way, if I hit a bug (I thankfully never did) I could restore without having an entire numerous-hour playthrough lost.

But if you're doing that, why not just save yourself all that hassle and just play non Iron Man, and force yourself to stick to the iron man rules?

I basically play Iron Man, except when a unit goes somewhere because of either the image lagging and instead of going four steps to take a shot, he winds up dashing right next to the Muton, or because it's right click to move, always right click to move, EXCEPT when you're around a corner, and then suddenly left click moves you around the corner. (I mean, WTF Ananda Gupta???)

Those things I reload for. Fuck that noise. I play games to enjoy myself, not to get my blood pressure up to 250 over 190 because the game does something fucking stupid.

But if I run my guy out to get some Meld and, oh joy, he awakens a Mechtoid, yeah, I'm gonna have to suck it. (Protip: Only run for Meld with an invisible trooper, or with a Mech Trooper.)

Creston wrote on Dec 3, 2013, 15:44:Yes, I watch basketball. It's the sport with literally the worst referees in the world. They are so incompetent they make the old pro-wrestling refs look good.

Maybe next year they'll add in the refs gambling on games that they fix as well!

Didn't whathisname... Tim donaghy donahue or whatever already allege that? That refs throw games for the sake of gambling?

It's still amazing how little fallout the NBA and David Stern got over that.

Of course, the NFL has had some games where a team is down by 13 points with 20 seconds to go and just gives over the ball, and suddenly the refs call this phantom foul that gives them another shot, they score a touchdown and lose by 6.

At first glance you're like "Well, that didn't matter." Until you realize that with that garbage time TD, suddenly Vegas covered and a WHOLE lot of money swung the other way.

You can alt-tab out and save your file in Ironman by creating a copy of the save file in Explorer. I think, but could be misremembering, that it doesn't save until you finish. It's possible it's after every turn - I honestly can't remember.

Regardless, I would save it before every other mission or so. That way, if I hit a bug (I thankfully never did) I could restore without having an entire numerous-hour playthrough lost.

Creston wrote on Dec 3, 2013, 15:41:I would have gone absolutely apeshit had that been an Iron Man game... :|

I think I've restarted 3 times already because I keep getting myself into trouble. Losing entire squads in Iron Man happens all the time. It's crazy. You finally get someone you like using and POW, one lucky shot from some alien and he's lying there dead.

It leads to some pretty incredible experiences but you get just as much pain and misery. The high point was running into the first MECH. That guy ripped my squad apart, I was scoring good hits each turn but he was killing one of my guys each turn, I ended up with a sniper left and she needed to reload. He fired on me twice and missed! I fired on him and missed! Same thing next round, all misses by him then my next sniper shot cut him down. Mission over, my sniper was the only one to make it out. Not long after I took her and another sniper into an Exalt mission. I had the whole squad hunkered down in cover firing on them every round and they just couldn't keep up. One by one they fell and more and more just kept coming. I could have retreated at a certain point but the path to the exit point was a killzone, I just stood my ground and kept firing. It worked until a Heavy fired a rocket at the wall, without cover my guys died in one turn. Ugh, that was the worst feeling being back at base. No money, almost every trooper was dead, just waiting to the end of the month pay day then needing to completely rebuild.

Yeah, I think it's really, really awesome. It's just SO.MUCH.FUN. Mech Troopers are the best class in anything in the history of ever.

The only valid complaints I would level against it:

1) It does make this more of a cartoon superhero game rather than Xcom. It's not about masses of soldiers dying ignominious deaths against the alien horde anymore, it's about you building a squad of demi-gods that wipe the aliens out by the bushel.

2) They haven't done shit about the need for satellites being your absolute #1-A-Alpha-Supreme priority, but at the same time they've added a ton of stuff that costs a ton of money and that you really want to get started on early. I wish they had rebalanced that, because the "QUICK QUICK QUICK BUILD POWER BUILD WORKSHOP BUILD NEXUS OH GOD OH GOD MORE SATELLITES MORE MORE MORE MORE" crap was boring, and still is boring, and will always forever more BE boring.

3) it can be god-awfully cruel hard. If you get the Nova Scotia fishing village mission early on, you're basically dead meat. Tumbler hates crysalids, I wonder how he'd feel when he comes into a mission where you need to kill (spoiler) THIRTY-TWO of them. In a reasonably small, cramped area.

But even so, it's just so much fun. The new maps are really cool, there's quite a few of them, the gene-alterations are pretty good, and Mechs steal the show. It's so worth its money.

Beamer wrote on Dec 3, 2013, 12:42:Microsoft didn't do this - as mentioned, it does it on the PS3 and PS4, too.

I didn't mean to imply that Microsoft did it, just that they will follow up with similar and more far-reaching situations next year.

Do you watch basketball? Coaches are called for fouls if they scream obscenities at the refs. This is a tongue-in-cheek reference to that. It isn't censoring you for swearing, it's censoring you for screaming at the game, just like real life.

Yes, I watch basketball. It's the sport with literally the worst referees in the world. They are so incompetent they make the old pro-wrestling refs look good. Roughly 99% of the technical fouls they give out are ridiculous. For a game to mimic that behavior is just fucking stupid.

Tumbler wrote on Dec 3, 2013, 12:58:I bought Xcom Enemy Within Sunday and I think I've put in at least 20 hours in the last two days. That is an amazing addition to that game. I didn't realize it was basically just adding a ton more stuff to do on the main campaign.

I think it's the best expansion pack ever released for anything. Ever.

Been trying to play iron man exclusively and...man does that rip your heart out every chance it gets.

I would heartily recommend people not play Iron Man. I ran into a funny bug the other day. Had killed all but 1 alien on a level, and the alien left was a stealth alien. That had stealthed. And wouldn't reappear. And I was out of all stealth-detection devices.

So in Iron Man, that would have been Game Over. Because nothing I did would make the fucker reappear. I put all my crew by themselves in the open. Armed with pistols. And still it wouldn't attack. I would have gone absolutely apeshit had that been an Iron Man game...

Fuck you Chrysalis. Those seem a little overpowered compared to everything else.

Oh God, really? You haven't seen the mechs now that they cut HEAT ammo's damage by 50%, have you? Watch one of those fuckers with built-in 30 defense and a DR of like 75% show up near your squad. It takes my entire team of colonels a full round to take one down. So getting one in less than optimum circumstances is basically a dead team member (unless you get lucky, which isn't often...)

They get obscene movement, can attack after huge movement distances and often 1 hit kill you even at full health. Oh and then you turn into a zombie with 10 hit points.

They 1 hit kill every organic being. That's kind of their whole point. Either equip melee damage protection items, which guard against that; or figure out they can move 12 steps and attack, or move more and not attack and then dual-fire is your friend; or do what you're supposed to do now in Enemy Within, which is bring a Mech Trooper, who is immune to their infesting attack.

I wish the Crysalids were harder than they are. They're still nowhere near as terrifying as they were in the original XCOM.

Doesn't help matters that overwatch seems to cut your aiming skill in half...#$@#$@ so many slow mo misses. They only time you should be slo mo is when you fucking HIT!

There's an aim penalty to overwatch, yeah. That's why despite what the game says (to go into overwatch versus taking a bad shot) it's really not true. Go into overwatch if you have nothing else to do, or when you set up a killzone. Otherwise, just go ahead and hunker down, or take the shot. There's no point in not taking a 35% shot but going into overwatch instead, and then taking the overwatch shot at probably a lower chance to hit.

Note: Mech Troopers have a power that deletes the aim penalty in overwatch. Making them, essentially, MurderDeathGods.

Really enjoying that game on ironman. Although using cybernetics so far seems like a waste because my guys are getting blown away too fast.

Cybernetics? Or you mean the gene-alterations? Mech Troopers shouldn't be getting blown away unless you make a major mistake. They have enough health to take 2 to 3 shots, and since most of their health comes from their armor, it takes a lot for them to get injured too.

Pro-Tip: NEVER take all your Squad Site snipers on the same missions. EVER. Losing that support SUCKS.

Ouch. Yeah that's gotta hurt. I've never wiped with a squad with two snipers, but that would REALLY suck.

Oh and FUCK EXALT. FUCK THOSE GUYS. FUCK FUCK FUCK. Zerg motherfuckers. They must have some special power to make my guys miss because they ripped me to pieces the last time I faced them.

Not really, but they're smarter about taking cover. Again a Mech Trooper is your friend, because he can destroy a fairly sizable area of cover with his gun. which gives the rest of your squad free reign to have wide-open shots.

A good tip against Exalt is to bring a soldier with the invisibility skin, and have him scout ahead to wake up their groups, then move in your guys so you get advantageous shots (preferably flanked, of course.)

But yeah, they're tough. Leaving an Exalt Heavy alive for a single turn is asking to get obliterated. Because he can ALWAYS make that fucking rocket shot that the game told you was "obstructed."

Agent.X7 wrote on Dec 3, 2013, 14:26:Hey, I just had a customer tell me that the One looks better than the PS4 because the resolution is LOWER. What? Just...what?

As counterintuitive as it sounds, there's some precedent. If your game has crappy textures, HD will show them in all their ugliness, while a lower resolution will kind of blur them together masking them.

Also, when teh pr0n went HD there were complaints since suddenly you could actually see the blemishes on the models.

Beamer wrote on Dec 3, 2013, 12:42:Do you watch basketball? Coaches are called for fouls if they scream obscenities at the refs. This is a tongue-in-cheek reference to that. It isn't censoring you for swearing, it's censoring you for screaming at the game, just like real life.

Again, I find it hysterical.

Yeah, I think it's pretty awesome. And that reaction in the vid is exactly what the devs were going for IMO. It adds immersion.